Jean-Luc Godard

Stadtkino, Tribute to Jean-Luc Godard - Das Stadkinobasel, this month presents a slice through the work of Jean-Luc Godard who turns 80 this year. The Swiss born, Paris based, film maker Jean-Luc Godard founded the so called ‘Nouvelle Vague’ in 1950’s Cinema, with famous film critics from the publication of ‘Cahiers du Cinema’.Godard was the first to say “You need a beginning, a middle and an end, - but not necessarily in that order”.

Godard is one of the most influential film directors of modern cinema. Film titles such as A Bout de Souffle (Breathless) 1959, is full of jump cuts. Le Mepris (Contempt) 1963,  represents the uneasy marriage of the sensual and cerebral – the essence of Godard’s films. Pierrot le Fou (Crazy Pete) 1965, a spontaneous road trip about politics, society, women poetry. And Weekend, 1967, are milestones in film history. Weekend is Godard’s vicious attack on bourgeois consumerism propelled by revolutionary rage. An unhappy couple set off to persuade her mother to part with her money; it ends in massacre, cannibalism and the premonition of ‘Fin du Cinema’. The centrepiece is a virtuoso eight minute tracking shot of a traffic jam. “Tracking shots are a question of morality”, he said. Godard went on to create silver screen stars with actors such as Jean-Paul Belmondo, Brigitte Bardot, and Anna Karina, his Muse and former wife – who are all simply unforgettable.

Vivre sa Vie,  is about love and life, whilst Une Femme est Une Femme  is a notional modern musical. Band a Part, 1964, (Band of Outsiders) is a three-cornered, gangster parody, crime thriller based on the throwaway lines from Godard, who said, ‘all you need to make a movie is a girl and a gun’. Incidentally the name of this film provided the name for Tarantino’s production company. One of his great remarks was, “to participate in the established forms of communication is to lose what is particular to your experience”.  Despite some early films that did not capture audience attention, the publicity shy, eccentric film maker began to get noticed as his film technique and experimental style improved, with critics identifying with his esprit de contradiction, lust for life and for political provocation.